In 1865, plantation owner Colonel P. H. Anderson was short on workers after the Civil War. He wrote a letter to the formerly-enslaved Jordon Anderson of Dayton, Ohio, asking him to return to Tennessee to help bring in the harvest and save the farm. Anderson responded with a very polite letter that is a masterpiece of passive-aggressive truth. Anderson’s boss, attorney Valentine Winters, who had written the letter Anderson dictated, had the letter published in the local paper, where it became a sensation.
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For the Letters Live program from Letters of Note, Laurence Fishburne reads Anderson’s letter in the deadpan manner he must have intended. It is both funny and deeply cutting. The first time we posted about the letter, most of the commenters doubted its authenticity. But as the Wikipedia article on Jordan Anderson tells us, every person mentioned in the letter is documented. Winters may have helped construct the letter, but the story was very much real. You can also read what happened to Colonel Anderson afterward. -via Laughing Squid
Source: neatorama